Luke Billings: 6A Cover Player

 admin  |    Dec 23rd, 2024

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Luke Billings is a 6-2, 195 Sr Catcher/RHP for the 6-6A Prosper Eagles. He has signed with Texas A&M University.

High School Baseball Career
As a Junior, Billings hit .341 with 16 2Bs, 1 3B, 6 HRs, 21 RBIs, 16 Runs, a .551 OBP and a .736 SLG. On the mound, he was 4-1 with 38 Ks in 28.2 IP, a 1.70 ERA and a 1.221 WHIP. He was tied for 4th among all 6A players in doubles and was tied for 9th in home runs. Billings was named the 5-6A Offensive Player of the Year. He was also selected to the THSBCA 6A All-State Team as a 1st Team Catcher and to the Texas Sports Writers Association 6A All-State Team as a 3rd Team Catcher as well as the THSB All-Texas 2nd Team. Additionally, Billings was selected to the Max Preps High School Baseball Underclass All-American Team.

In his sophomore season, Billings hit .366 with 15 2Bs, 4 HRs, 25 RBIs, 14 Runs, a .480 OBP and a .695 SLG. He was tied for 5th among all 6A players in doubles. He was named to the 5-6A All-District Team as a 1st Team Catcher and was selected to the THSBCA 6A All-State Team as a 1st Team Catcher and to the Texas Sports Writers Association 6A All-State Team as a 2nd Team Catcher.

As a freshman, Billings hit .319 with 5 2Bs, 5 HRs, 22 RBIs, 28 Runs with a .409 OBP and a .532 SLG. He was named the 5-6A Newcomer of the Year and the Dallas Morning News Newcomer of the Year.

Other Baseball Recognition
2024 MLB/USA Baseball All-American Game
2024 Rangers Area Code Team
2024 Prep Baseball Report Texas State Games
2024 Perfect Game #9 Player in Texas
2024 Prep Baseball Report #10 Player in Texas
2023 Prep Baseball Report All-American Game
2023 Dicks Sporting Goods/Perfect Game Junior All-Star Game
2023 Rangers Underclass Area Code Team
2023 Perfect Game Junior National Showcase
2022 Rangers Underclass Area Code Team

Personal
Parents: Mom – Rachel Payne
Dad – Brett Billings
Step-dad – Timothy Payne
Siblings – One older brother, one older sister, one younger brother, one younger sister
Favorite musician – Gregory Alan Isakov
Favorite Restaurant – Any Brazilian Steakhouse
Go to fast food – Chick-Fil-A
Last movie I watched – Batman: The Dark Knight
What I do outside of baseball: Play Guitar, Write songs, Fish and Play video games
Favorite MLB player: Pete Rose

Interview
Prosper has had a good team the last couple of years but have run into Flower Mound early in the playoffs two years in a row. Tell me about that.

It’s been tough losing the playoffs but I’ve had a lot of fun over the past three years. My freshman year, I had fun learning from all the seniors that went on to go play at a high level, like Easton Carmichael, Lucas Davenport, Jacob Devenny. They’re all playing Division I baseball right now. It was fun to learn from them my freshman year. And then sophomore and junior year, I got to step up as a leader. It’s been a lot of fun, although we have lost to Flower Mound two years in a row. But third time’s a charm, so I think we see them again this year.

You came so close to beating Flower Mound both years. They went to state tournament twice. What were the conversations you guys had knowing you were so close to beating the State Champion and State Semfinalist.

Honestly, we were upset. But at the same time we were a little content, just because we weren’t supposed to do that well. We were kind of flying under the radar the whole year. We weren’t like a super dominant team. We just said during the series ‘Why not us?’ Because no one had us picked to win that series but we were about as close as you can get to winning a three game series against them.

What do you like about this year’s Prosper team?

I like how scrappy we are. We have a couple power bats in our lineup, but other than that, we have a bunch of guys that just are dirt bags and want to go play baseball as hard as they can. So it’ll help us out a lot, just because we’ll have a speed factor to move guys around.  I’m just excited to beat people in the small things of the game. Like playing a big power team and they think they come out and hit home runs but we beat them with bunting and speed and a couple of big hits. I’m excited for the scrappy part of baseball. It’s fun to play that way.

What do you think are some of the challenges for your team are this year?

Challenges? Probably that we don’t have as much power bats in our lineup as we have in the past. We’re not going to have the long ball as much this year as a team. But we will be fine. Just a little different.

You’ve been a productive hitter for Prosper. What will innings on the mound look like for you in 2025?

I hope that every week I get to throw four innings, and then I’m done because we’re up by so much. Ha. That would be ideal. But, honestly, I have no idea what my innings are going to look like this year. But I am probably going to start on the mound for us, and I’m looking forward to that. I’ve always been in a reliever role. But I’ve started to develop more into a starting role for pitching. And I’m super excited for that. But hopefully I keep my innings down and my pitch count down. I’d love to go like seven innings with 75 pitches. That’d be ideal. But you know that won’t happen every game. Just keeping the innings down, keeping the pitches down. That would be the goal.

I’ve heard good things about you guys defensively. Talk about that.

I agree 100%. We will be good defensively. The nine guys we have out there on the field could be the most athletic and defensively sound nine in the state. That’s what I would say about our defense. We have two guys that are scrappy up the middle that just don’t miss the ball. I think everywhere – outfield, infield – we’re just going to be very defensively sound.

Why Texas A&M

Coach Earley for sure. Him taking the head coach job. He was my favorite coach out of all of them. And when he took the head coach job it was hard to turn that down. And I like the town of College Station. I like more of a calm, college town vibe, rather than a big city. I’m not a big city guy.